The Adventures of Darius & Downey, Dig This, and more

Books, Exhibits, Travel

• As told to Ed Zipco by Leon Reid IV and Brad Downey
• With the heft of a respectable tome on art theory comes a true-crime story with two lovable vandals as the villains. Darius and Downey met in 2000 while students at Pratt and quickly evolved from graffiti taggers to masters of surprise who work by the light of day. Dressed as city workers, they calmly swap messages on street signs or bend poles into a delicate kiss. A photo gallery of projects illustrates their works' shelf life, sometimes as brief as an hour. Thames & Hudson; $29.95

• Yale University Art Gallery
• June 24 through Aug. 10
• Contemporary photographer Abelardo Morell explores the camera obscura, in which light enters a room through only one small opening and superimposes an inverted image of the exterior world on the opposite wall. See the effect in 40 of Morell's displayed photographs and in a specially created room in the exhibition. Artgallery.yale.edu

• Steamboat Springs, Colo.
• Serious about breaking new ground? Architects can take a spin moving earth at Dig This, a “heavy equipment play arena” that opened last November in Steamboat Springs, Colo. New Zealander Ed Mumm launched the business after he discovered how much fun it was to use the heavy equipment he rented to build his new house. “The fact is a lot of us, subconsciously, have never left the sandbox,” he explains. At Dig This, the grown-ups' sandbox is a 10-acre site in the Yampa Valley, a ski area about two and a half hours northwest of Denver. For either a half or whole day, supervised participants run the equipment: bulldozers, excavators, and skid loaders. You can doze or excavate dams and ponds or move rock around to different “work areas.” “There's a lot of concentration involved,” says Mumm. “After half a day, people generally have sensory overload.” Corporate exercises are available for groups up to 30. $350–$650; www.digthis.info

EXHIBITGreg Lynn FORM: Blobwell Pavilion
• SCI-Arc, Los Angeles
• Through July 13
• Working with polymer manufacturer Panelite, architect Greg Lynn has rethought the brick. His roto-moted plastic units are low-density, recyclable, and impact-resistant. In this site-specific installation, the blobs interlock to form a freestanding wall that takes on varied hues and curvy shapes. sciarc.edu

Credit: Sci-Arc

• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Through Aug. 3
• In 1981, the New York headquarters for Goldman Sachs was getting fitted out, and one of the company's partners was getting a new private office. He asked SOM interior architect Margo Grant Walsh to design a pedestal to showcase a collection of antique silver. Smitten, she started her own collection of metal goods that now numbers over 800 and includes copper, white metal, mixed metals, and jewels. On show are 50 works Grant Walsh owns by late 19th and early 20th century architects. mfah.org

EXHIBITDesigned by Architects: Metalwork from the Margo Grant Walsh Collection

Credit: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

• The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
• Through Aug. 3
• In 1981, the New York headquarters for Goldman Sachs was getting fitted out, and one of the company's partners was getting a new private office. He asked SOM interior architect Margo Grant Walsh to design a pedestal to showcase a collection of antique silver. Smitten, she started her own collection of metal goods that now numbers over 800 and includes copper, white metal, mixed metals, and jewels. On show are 50 works Grant Walsh owns by late 19th and early 20th century architects. mfah.org